them to church on their marriage day. If any flax be left on the rock, they salt it, in order to preserve it from Satanic power, and if yarn be accidentally left on a reel, it must not be taken off in the usual way, but be cut off. The same caution is exercised on Good Friday, but a reason is given for this, different from both of those that have already been mentioned:-on this day, it is said, a rope could not be found to bind our Saviour to the Cross, and the yarn was taken off a woman's wheel for this purpose. Of all the periods of the Calendar, none can compare, as regards the variety of miscellaneous customs, rites, and antiquities, with Christmas or Yule-the glorious time of commemoration to the Christian world for the birth of a Saviour-originally, however, the Gothic Pagan feast of Yule or Jul, celebrated in honour of the sun at the winter solstice. + This festival, amongst northern nations, was the great season of sacrifice: amongst the Danes, even human victims seem to have been offered to their spurious Deities. The Goths used to sacrifice a Boar, for this animal (like the horse amongst the Persians) was, according to their mythology, sacred to the sun. To this day it is customary among the peasants of the north of Europe, at the time of Christmas, to make bread in the form of a boar pig. This they place upon a table with bacon and other dishes, and, as a good omen, expose it as long as the feast continues. For to leave it uncovered is reckoned a bad presage, and totally incongruous with the manners of their ancestorsthis bread is called Julagalt. The use that is made in Scotland of the Maiden or last handful of corn that has been cut down in harvest, has an analogy to this custom. It is divided amongst the horses or cows on Christmas morning, and sometimes on that of the New Year," to make them thrive all the year round." Anciently, the boar's head soused, with a lemon in its mouth, was the first dish brought on table on Christmas Day, in England, and was carried up with great state and solemnity. For this indispensable ceremony there was a Carol, which is given by Wynkyn de Worde as it was sung in his time, and as, according to Warton, with some alterations, it is still sung in Queen's College, Oxford. "A carol bryngyng in the Bore's Head, Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. A particular sanctity has, by many nations, been believed to be lodged in salt, hence the expression Jeos aλs, divine salt, by Homer; and goes, holy salt, by others. Su. G. jul. Dan. jule, juledag. Isl. jol. A. S. geola, &c. The Greenlanders, to the present day, keep a Sunfeast about the 22d of December, to rejoice at the return of the sun and the expected renewal of the bunting season.-Crantz's Hist. of Greenland, i. 176. "The Bore's Heade in hande bring I, "The Bore's Head, I understande,. Servite cum Cantico. "Be gladde, Lordes, both more and lasse, Caput apri defero In some parts of Scotland, he who first. opens the door on Yule day, expects to prosper more than any other member of the family during the future year, because, as the vulgar express it, "he lets in Yule." The door being opened, it is customary with some to place a table or chair in the door way, covering it with a clean cloth; and, according to their own language, to "set on it bread and cheese to Yule." Early in the morning, as soon as any one of the family gets out of bed, a new besom is set behind the outer door-the design being "to let in Yule,"-superstitions which are clearly of heathen origin-Yule being not only personified but treated as a Deity, and receiving an offering. It is also common to have a table covered in the house from morning until evening, with bread and drink upon it, that every one who calls may take a portion, and it is deemed especially ominous, if any one comes into a house and leaves it without participation. Whatever number of persons may call on this day, all must partake of the good cheer. A similar superstition prevails on this subject in the north of England; but on New Year's day-it is that of the first foot-the name applied to the person who first enters a house in the New Year; this is regarded by the superstitious and credulous as influencing the fate of the family, especially of the fair portion of it, for the remainder of the year. "To exclude all suspected or unlucky persons, it is customary for one of the damsels to engage beforehand some favoured youth, who, elated with so signal a mark of female distinction, gladly comes early in the morning, and never empty handed."-(Brockett, p. 72). The following ridiculous rite, similar to one we have referred to, under the first of January, also holds in Scotland. Any servant who is supposed to have a due regard to the interests of the family, and is not at the same time emancipated from the yoke of superstition, is careful to go early to the well, on Christmas morning, to draw water, pull corn out of the stack, and also to bring kale from the kitchen garden. This is meant to insure prosperity to the family. On this day too, as well as on New Year's Day, Handsel Monday (the first Monday of the New Year, when it is customary, especicially in the north of England, to make children and servants a present as a Handsel), and Rood Day, superstitious people in Scotland, will not allow a coal to be carried out of their own houses to that of a neighbour, lest it should be employed for the purposes of witchcraft; and the ancient Romans had a similar superstition. The custom of saluting the apple trees at Christmas, with a view to their produce another year, yet exists in the west of England. In some places, the parishioners walk in procession, visiting the principal orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected as the representative of the rest; this is saluted with a certain form of words, having in them the air of incantation. They then either sprinkle the tree with cyder, or dash a bowl of cyder against it, to ensure its bearing plentifully the ensuing year. One of the most remarkable of the events at Christmas, is its feasting. "The plum puddings, minced pies, and a thousand made dishes of exquisite sorts, such as people in common have but once a year, used to be, and still are, in some places, brought on the jovial board of hospitality. The Christmas dinner usually took place after mass and before vespers; and afterwards in the evening the wassail bowl.* Christmas Carols and merry songs, with various pastimes, jokes, Christmas games, and drolleries, made up the evening's entertainment, which was heightened by the merry ringing of the bells, and the mixture of music played both in the streets and the houses."-(Forster, p. 732). We have already remarked that Yule was celebrated as a feast by the ancient Goths. It was also customary, especially in Sweden, for different families to meet together in one village, and to bring meat and drink with them, for the celebration of the feast; the same custom was observed when there was a general concourse to the place where one of their temples stood; and this was probably the origin of the custom, still maintained among us, of relations and friends feasting at each other's houses at this time. The festivities of Christmas have, however, passed their zenith; year after year witnesseth their decadency, and the being of the present day can form but an imperfect idea *Our custom of drinking healths, and the wassail bowl, appear to have originated, immediately, in the Introduction of the British Monarch Vortigern to Rowena-the beautiful blue-eyea daughter, or according to other writers, niece of the Saxon Hengist. She kneeled down, and, presenting to the king a cup of spiced wine, said, "Lord King, waes heil, health to you: to which Vortigern, instructed by his interpreter, replied, drine heil, I drink your health, and then, as Robert of Gloucester says, "Kuste hire and sitte hire adoune and glad dronk hire heil, And that was tho' in this land the verst was-hail." Was hail afterwards, not unnaturally, because the name of the drinking cups of the Anglo-Saxons. The Gifts now generally conferred at the New Year, seem originally to have belonged to Christmas. In London, and in many other parts of England and of Europe, the custom of giving Christmas Boxes or Presents, although on the decline, is still a serious tax on large families and establishments. In some places, it is now confined almost wholly to children. In London, Parish Boys and Children at School still carry about their samples of writing, and ask for their Christmas Box; and the Bellman, Watchmen, Waits, Bell-ringers, Postmen, &c. all over the country, repeat their annual calls on the liberality of their patrons. Of the antiquity of such gifts, we have already spoken, at the commencement of this Review; we shall therefore merely quote on this subject a few of the remarks of Dr. Jamieson. "The Romans, at this season, were wont to send presents of sweetmeats, such as dried figs, honey, &c., to which they gave the name of Strene. This was meant as a good omen; and by this substantial emblem, they also expressed their wishes, that their friends might enjoy the sweets of the year on which they entered: Rosin. Antiq. p. 29. 250. The custom which prevails in Scotland of presenting what the vulgar call a sweetieskon, or a loaf enriched with raisins, currants, and spiceries, has an evident analogy to this. In some of the northern counties of Scotland, the vulgar would reckon it a bad omen to enter a neighbour's house on New Year's day empty handed. It is common to carry some trifling present; as a bit of bread, a little meal, or a piece of money. Those gifts were also called by the Romans Saturnalitia. (Etymological Dictionary, Art. Yule). The Saturnalia amongst the Romans, at length, lasted seven days; the Sigillaria (feasts also in honour of Saturn, and formerly celebrated after the Saturnalia, at which little statues of silver were offered to the God), being included. During this season of festivity and dissipation, all public business was suspended: the senate and courts of justice were shut up: and all schools had a vacation-circumstances strik ingly resembling our Christmas holidays. Master and servant sate at one table. Every thing serious was laid aside, and people of all ranks gave themselves up to jollity (which word, indeed, as well as the French joli, Wachter considers to come from jol, yule.) Candles of a particular kind are in some places made for this season: for the candle that is lighted on Christmas Day, must be so large as to burn from the time of its being lighted till the day be done, otherwise it would be a bad omen to the family for the subsequent year. There is no reason to doubt that this custom has been transmitted from the times of heathenism. In the Roman Saturnalia, lights were used in the worship of their Deity, and hence originated the custom of making presents of this kind. The poor were wont to present the rich with wax tapers, and Yule candles are still, in the north of Scotland, given as presents by merchants to their stated customers. By many who rigidly observe the superstitions of this season, the Yule candle is allowed to burn out of itself, by others it is extinguished, and the remnant kept for luck. There are other miscellaneous superstitions, in relation to this period, of which we shall relate but two or three. In the morning, one individual rises before the rest of the family, and prepares food for them, which must be eaten in bed. This frequently consists of cakes baked with eggs, called Care cakes. A Bannock, or cake, is baked for all in the house, and if any one of these should break in the toasting, the person for whom it is baked will not, it is supposed, see another Christmas: a part of this custom is evidently of Catholic origin-being the remnant of that of baking cakes in honour of the delivery of the Virgin Mary. Women seem, in some places, to have a peculiar aversion to spinning on this day-a superstition which savours strongly of paganism. Ovid affirms that Bacchus punished Alcithoe and her sisters for presuming to spin during his festival. There is a singular passage in Jhone Hamilton's Facile Traictise, quoted by Jamieson, which, whilst it affords a proof of the traditionary antipathy to spinning on Yule Day, also shows how jealous the Scotch Reformers were against the observance of all festival days. After declaring the opposition of the Caluinian sect to all haly-dayes except Sonday, he says— "The ministers of Scotland-in contempt of the vther halie dayes obseruit be England -cause thair wyfis and seruants spin in oppin sicht of the people upon Yeul day; and their affectionat auditeurs constraines thair tennants to yok thair pleuchs on Yeul day in contempt of Christ's Natiuitie, whilk our Lord hes not left vnpunisit: for thair oxin ran wod and brak thair nekis, and leamit sum pleugh men, as is notoriously knawin in sin drie partes of Scotland." The Christmas Log, or Yule or Yull Clog, is another superstition of the period: this is a large block, or log of wood, laid on the fire on Christmas Eve, and, if possible, kept VOL. I. 2 M burning all the following day, or longer. A portion of the old clog of the preceding year, is sometimes saved to light up the new block at the next Christmas, and to preserve the family from harm, in the mean while: during the time, too, that this log lasts, the servants in farm houses are entitled, by custom, to ale at their meals. Of the various sports, games, and pastimes, of this season of hilarity, such as the Lord or Abbot of Misrule, or Abbot of Unressoun-Hot Cockles-Hunt the SlipperGuisers, or Gysars-He can do little that can't do this, &c.-it might be entertaining to give some etymology, but our already overstrained limits will not admit of this. It has ever been a great period for gaming in most countries even the ancient Romans, by whom games of chance were prohibited, provided an exception for the month of December. For some unexplained cause, St. Stephen's Day (December 26), was a great period with our ancestors for bleeding their horses-a practice followed by people of all ranks, and recommended by Tusser in his Husbandry. The custom is thus referred to by Barnaby Googe. "Then followeth St. Stephen's day, whereon doth can, them good, And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare, As if that Stephen any time tooke charge of Horses here." According to Mr. Dance, this is a very ancient practice, and was introduced into Britain by the Danes. Mr. Nicholls has also quoted money paid "for letting oure horses blede on Christmasse weke." The Holy Innocents, or Childermass Day (December 28), commemorates the slaughter of the Jewish children by Herod, and it is recorded by Macrobius (Saturnal. cap. iv.), that the savage order was so promptly executed, that one of the sons of the tyrant, then at nurse, fell a sacrifice with the other children.* "It hath," saith the learned Gregorie, "been a custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip up the children upon Innocents' Day morning, that the memorie of this murther might stick the closer; and, in a moderate proportion, to act over the cruelty again in kind." A custom referred to by Hospinian— -"hujus lanienæ truculentissimæ ut pueri Christianorum recordentur et simul discant odium, persecutionem, crucem, exilium, Macrobius relates, as one of the jokes of Augus. tus, that when he heard of this circumstance, he Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam exclaimed, filium." egestatemque statim cum nato Christo incipiere, virgis cædi solent in aurora hujus Diei adhuc in lectulis jacentes à parentibus suis." This was formerly a day of unlucky omen, and an apprehension is still entertained by the superstitious, that no undertaking can prosper which is begun on that day of the week on which Childermass last fell. * Lastly-New Year's Eve-or as it is termed by the vulgar in Scotland, and in the north of England, Hogmanay, or Hogmenay. This term is also transferred to the entertainment given to a visitor on this day, or to a gift conferred on those who apply for it, according to ancient custom. "The cotter weanies, glad an' gay Wi pocks out oure their shouther, Dr. Jamieson has given us an interesting extract regarding this ceremony, from a fugitive piece in the Caledonian Mercury for 1792. "The cry of Hogmanay Trololay, is of usage immemorial in this country. It is well known that the ancient Druids went into the woods with great solemnity on the last night of the year, where they cut the misletoe of the oak with a golden bill, and brought it into the towns, and country houses of the great, next morning, when it was distributed among the people, who wore it as an amulet to preserve them from all harms, and particularly from the danger of battle. When Christianity was introduced among the barbarous Celtæ and Gauls, it is probable that the clergy, when they could not completely abolish the Pagan rites, would endeavour to give them a Christian turn. We have abundant instances of this in the ceremonies of the Romish Church. Accordingly this seems to have been done in the present instance, for about the middle of the 16th century, many complaints were made to the Gallic Synods, of great excesses which were committed on the last night of the year, and on the first of January, during the Fête de Fous, by companies of both sexes, dressed in fantastic habits, who ran about with their Christmas Boxes, called Tire Lire, begging for the Lady in the Straw, both money and wassels. These beggars were called Bachelettes, Guisards; and their chief Rollet Follet. They came into the churches, during the services of the vigils, and disturbed the devotions by their cries of Au gui menez, Rollet Follet, Au gui menez, tiri liri, mainte du blanc et point du bis. Thiers, Hist. des Fêtes et des Jeux. At last, in 1598, at the representation of the Bishop of Augres, a stop was put to their coming into the churches: but they • In Northumberland, the month of December is called Hogmana, which Lambe derives from the Greek ayia μ-the holy moon, but this is doubtful. Others maintain it to be merely a corraption from the French "homme est né"-man is born-in allusion to the Nativity! became more licentious, running about the In confirmation of this, it may be remarked, that, in many parts of France, it is customary for young people, on the last day of December, to go about the towns and villages, singing and begging money, as a kind of New Year's gift, and crying out Au Guy! L'an neuf! To the misletoe! the NewYear is at hand; and, lastly, in England, it is still a common custom amongst the vulgar, to hang up a branch of misletoe on Chrismas Day, under which the young men salute their sweethearts. This is evidently a relic of Druidism, as well as the custom already referred to, of adorning the churches with it; and both may be viewed as a traditionary vestige of its consecration, in the worship of the ancient Britons. unexpected a length, as to leave us but little The above catalogue has extended to so have struck every one, in its perusal the space for comment. One circumstance must intimate connexion between the customs of nations remote from each other, and indicative of their common origin. In tracing nations to their particular sources, the chief reliance has generally been placed upon ety The word Gui seems to us to be of Celtic origin. The Misletoe was a sacred plant with the Druids, plant par excellence. In all the dialects of the Celand hence, we have no doubt, was considered the tic, the word Gui, in some form or other, signifies trees. In the Celtic, Guez signifies trees-Guezecq and Guezennecq-a place abounding in trees. In the Armoric, or Bas Breton-Guezen is a tree-gues trees-Guezennic-shrubs—whilst in the WelshGuid is a tree, and Guidhele bushes, brambles, &c. from which the misletoe was termed Gui, as parson was derived from persona-the person. mology; but a close investigation of customs is of no less importance: in every such historical investigation, indeed, they ought to go hand in hand. We have seen that most of our rites and superstitions are of gothic origin; whilst others are as clearly Druidical, or Celtic; and both resemble those of the East, and especially of Persia. This is readily accounted for. Both Celts and Goths were originally Oriental. The Celts, having emigrated at a much earlier period than the Goths, had probably fewer ceremonies; hence the paucity amongst us, of Celtic superstitions. The religion of the Nomadic Goths, was also, at first, we have but little doubt, comparatively simple: the great change in that of the Scandinavians, being wrought by the arrival of Odin, who introduced amongst them the splendid mythology of the East, and subsequently received his own apothe osis. Other observances have reached us, through a Grecian or Roman channel, but these again bear striking evidence of an Oriental origin. The mythology of Greece, is unquestionably Oriental; and the Romans derived theirs from the Greeks. Hence many of our superstitions, nursery tales, &c. may have descended to us by various streams -originally, along with our Celtic or Gothic ancestry, and subsequently by the route of more modern conquest-most, however, unequivocally exhibiting the like Oriental parentage. Lastly, the wide extent of superstition amongst us superstition too, in many cases, of the most idolatrous character, affords a humiliating subject of reflection; and it is a striking proof of the tyrannical influence of custom on the mind, that many, who have no faith in these observances, could not feel comfortable, were they to neglect them. We recollect a naval officer, high in rank, smiling at the superstitions of the profession, and especially at the almost universal belief, that whistling on deck is capable of raising the wind, yet declaring, in the same breath, that he should not feel at ease, were any one on deck to whistle in tempestuous weather-a better instance we could not give of the power of superstition : set the public right upon this point. It was not indeed easy to believe he was the political priest his liberal biographers make him. Paley took in his daily newspaper (a ministerial one by the bye), read it with avidity, as people in the country are apt to do, and made a vernacular comment or two upon the state questions that chanced to be uppermost, at the club in the evening betwixt the deals, much more concerned as to whether he should cut the king than whether the king would cut him, and as little dreaming that he was a politician, as Sganarelle, the faggotmaker, dreamed that he was a doctor of physic. What, then, would have been his surprise to find himself held up to posterity in the character of a devout Whig, somewhat embarrassed, indeed, by his profession, but in his heart a determined opponent of restrictions in church and state: and even unwilling to accept the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge, from a conviction that he should not be able to keep in with Pitt for a month! Has a Master of Jesus College so much to do with the prime-minister of the day, and are the concerns of that learned body, in addition to his other troubles, the subject of so much of a premier's official solicitude? Paley talks, it is true, of the divine right of kings being the same as the divine right of constables; and puts the case of the flock of pigeons striving to gather corn for one, and that, perhaps, the weakest of them all, in a manner, for aught we know, to the satisfaction of a Whig; but if these passages, and a few others such as these, are adduced as fair samples (medio ex acervo) of Faley's politics, the spirit he was of is not perceived. It was not the humour of the man to wrap up his propositions in cotton wool, otherwise how little could have been made of either of these formidable bug-bears. Suppose he had said that he did not hold the doctrine of divine right, nevertheless that he submitted to every ordinance of man, whether to the king, as supreme, or to the constable, as appointed by the king-what would have been alleged then? Or suppose he had said that the extremely unequal division of property has a very unnatural aspect-that there must be some very great good resulting from it, to justify the state in securing to one subject half a county and to another scarce half-acrown; and then suppose (as he actually does) he had gone on to show that there really was such a good-what would have been said then? Indeed a desire to recur to first principles in practice, or to stir the foundations of society, was as alien from the nature of Paley as anything we can imagine. He had a great deal too much of the epicurean in him for any such exploits. He was apt to think (perhaps too apt) all well that ended well. The construction of the House of Commons may be open to a thousand objections; Paley was not blind to them, |